Thunderstorms to hit UK this weekend with possible weather warnings

Thunderstorms are forecast to hit the UK this weekend and weather warnings are possible.

Saturday will start chilly but become a “largely fine and dry day for most with plenty of sunshine”, the Met Office said.

Clouds and possibly some heavy showers may move into the south-west but a more drastic change is expected on Sunday.

Thundery downpours are likely to hit eastern parts of the UK that day and could spread to central areas too.

They may be “impactful” with intense rain, hail and gusty winds, the Met Office said.

Despite the storms, temperatures in the south and east could reach the high-20s or even 30C when the sun appears, but forecasters noted this is “very much dependent on cloud breaks”.

A Met Office spokesperson said: “We’ve recently had high pressure in the weather which has brought a bit more stability, obviously we’ve had rain at times across various parts of the UK, but nothing in the way of thunderstorms.

“There is a bit of uncertainty as to the exact position (of the potential thunderstorms) at the moment, so there are no warnings at the moment, but the expectation is that we will likely have a thunderstorm warning for some parts of the east of the UK for Sunday.”

The weather forecast is less certain than usual from the end of the weekend into the beginning of next week, Met Office Deputy Chief Meteorologist Dan Harris said.

This is due to “the complex interaction of a number of volatile, small-scale weather features over and around the UK”, he said.

“We are keeping warnings under review, and will look to issue them over this weekend as forecast confidence increases.”

Any temperatures in the high 20s will be short-lived and return to around average by the start of next week.

Summer has been cooler than usual in the UK with “slightly below average sun”, the latest Met Office statistics show.

Rainfall has varied between regions but has been average.

A heatwave swept parts of the UK in September last year, with temperatures topping 30C somewhere in the country for seven consecutive days.

However, the Met Office said, “there’s no sign of that at the moment”.